The Journey Continues
by Master Katara
Summary: When Katara and Sokka get seperated from Aang and get captured Aang goes to rescue them. What will happen on his journey? How will Katara and Sokka get saved?
1. Chapter 1

**_A Surprise Attack_**

It was awhile since Sokka and Katara's father had left the South Pole and as Sokka twisted and turned in his sleep only one thing came to mind.

_**Goodbye, Sokka. Take good care of your sister…**_

The last words his father had said to him. The last memory of his father buzzed around his head ever since they had left the South Pole to go to the North Pole to find a teacher for Aang.

As he had already known since the death of his mother, it was hard to lose someone you love. His father wasn't dead, but he hadn't seen him for a very long time.

"Sokka, why are you up so late? It's a perfect night to finally rest and get some sleep."

He turned around to see Aang staring at him.

"You ok Sokka?" The young airbender looked at him questioningly.

"Yeah, just had a bad dream." he said to him hoping that Aang would believe it.

"Oh, ok. Well it's nearly dawn, Sokka. You should go back to sleep before you're tired in the morning." And with that the boys turned over to go back to sleep. But as Aang could tell, Sokka wasn't telling the truth.

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It's not like Sokka to be up before everyone else. He usually is the one Katara and I usually have to wake up.

Aang thought as he rolled back over to look at Sokka who was already asleep. The sun just began to peek over the top of the mountains nearby as Aang rested his head on the pillow of his sleeping bag. He decided to stay up since the sun was already rising and there was no point in going back to sleep when Sokka and Katara will end up waking up soon. For a while the airbender looked up at the sun thinking of his old home and Gyatso, his guardian that took care of him before he had ran away. 

Gyatso had taught him everything he knew about airbending and was like a parent to him.

**_Gyatso, I wish I could have taken you with me…_**

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Heading towards them, but quite a distance from the island the kids were on a fire navy ship was close by.

A day before the kids had left on the flying bison heading towards the north. The bison they rode was easy to see in the dark with its arrow and white, fluffy fur that Zuko and his crew could follow.

As they approached the island that night there was a sudden mist that captivated the entire island making it impossible to see where they had landed. But it was not a very big island therefore they should be spotted by daybreak.

"Helmsmen, head a course for the east part of the island!" The Prince commanded as they approached the island.

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As the sun became in full view from where Aang was in his sleeping bag he got up to wake the others.

"Sokka, Sokka wake up!" The airbender poked his sleeping bag trying to wake him up, which was never that easy.

Before Aang had a chance to try again, they heard a loud slamming noise come from the east part of the island. Both Sokka and Katara jumped from their dreams and sat up.

"What was that Aang?" Katara asked as she pulled the covers off of her body and stood up as so did Sokka.

"I'm not sure, but whatever it was must mean we're not alone. I'll take my glider and search the island for what the noise came from. Stay here and keep watch." With that Aang opened his glider and flew into the air without making a sound.

Not before long did Aang see the owner of the noise. A fire navy ship was resting on the east side of the island with its front buried in sand, which detected that whoever was on the ship was already on the island.

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"I hope Aang gets back soon, the longer he's away the more worried I get about what that noise was." Katara said then looked at Sokka as if he knew exactly where Aang was.

"It sounded like a type of metal or rock if you ask me." He replied as he got out his boomerang and went into an attacking position just incase they were ambushed.

"Sokka, you don't think it was a ship, do you?" There was worry and fear in the waterbender's voice. She tried not to sound scared but inside she really was.

"Could have been. Since fire navy ships are metal and it did sound a lot like the one that we were attacked by back home. I just hope…" Before he could finish another noise was heard in the bushes nearby.

Sokka readied his boomerang for attack and Katara took the top off of the water bottle she carried around with her most of the time.

A couple seconds later two Fire Nation soldiers came out of the forest and attacked with two strong fire blasts protruding from there palms and straight for them.

As they did Katara bended the water out from the water bottle she had with her and shot it at them as hard as she could.

Both soldiers ducked and shot two more at them twice as hard as the first time.

Clutching his boomerang in his right hand Sokka managed to throw it straight for one of the guards that was at the time watching Katara's movements and knocked him out.

"Hah! Not as tough as you thought you were, huh?" Sokka laughed and then struck it at the other soldier but missed.

Katara watched the first soldier go down in amusement then shot what seemed like a waterball at the other soldier and brought him down. Before being able to get up she shot another one at the firebender, which hit him against a nearby tree, leaving the soldier unconscious.

"We better look for Aang, before they find him!" Katara said then ran off into the forest with Sokka following close behind her.


	2. Chapter 2

**_Fly Appa, Fly! _**

Aang watched the ship as Fire Nation soldiers came out and headed inward towards the forest. Most likely they had already found Katara and Sokka, but Aang just hoped they didn't catch them. So with Momo curled on his neck and his glider in his left hand, he flew off in search of his friends.

_**They couldn't have gotten that far away from our camp...**_

Aang thought as he circled the campsite looking for any signs of his friends.

"Hurrrrrrooo?" Momo flew off of Aang's shoulder and onto a boulder near the campsite.

"Don't worry Momo, if Appa's right here, than they must still be on the island. We'll find them." The airbender reassured his pet lemur.

As Aang landed he jumped on Appa's back to cover more ground.

"Come on Appa, we have to search for Katara and Sokka," But he was still sleeping.

"Aarrrgghhhhh," The bison moaned lazily.

"Fine, we'll go. But if Katara and Sokka come back, come and find me and Momo ok?"

So the airbender and his lemur were off again.

_------------------------------------------------_

"Sokka, I'm not sure if we should be out looking for Aang. What if he comes back and we're not there?" Katara looked at Sokka then kept on walking.

By now they had pains from running and were panting heavily. On top of that, they hadn't eaten since earlier yesterday so they had a hard time trying to look for him.

"What if something happens to him or if they find him? If we stayed at the camp and they got away with him they would be miles away before we even leave the camp." Sokka told his younger sister.

"I guess so," Katara said looking at him with an annoyed expression.

As they walked through the forest, being careful not to step on anything that might emit sound, they heard a voice from not a far off distance.

"Did you hear that?" Katara asked her brother.

"Shhhhhhhh, be quiet. If we stay unseen, we might be able to get a closer look on who it is." He whispered back to her.

The two of them hid behind a large tree to listen to the voices.

"Lieutenant, search the west side of the island. If you find him bring him to the ship and inform my uncle." The Prince said and turned away to search the opposite side of the island.

"Zuko's heading this way, we need to move before he spots us!" The frightened waterbender whispered then looked back behind the tree.

"There's nowhere to go without exposing us. We'll have to attack." Sokka took out his boomerang ready to throw it.

"I knew it was a bad idea to leave the campsite. We should have took Appa and searched for Aang," She said quietly but just enough that Sokka could hear.

Ignoring what she said, Sokka came from behind the tree and threw his boomerang at Prince Zuko.

Almost missing the boomerang shot out and hit Zuko in the head.

"Where is he?" The Prince sounded furious.

"We'd never tell you!" Katara yelled as she came from behind the tree ready for attack.

_We can't anyway, we don't even know…_

Katara thought to herself.

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"Where are they?" Aang asked as they flew over the treetops.

Sighing, he got ready to land on a boulder he could see just a tiny bit through the trees that jutted out of the forest floor.

Before he started to descend from the sky, he could see a blast of fire coming from the forest close by.

"Looks like trouble, I hope Katara and Sokka aren't in this!" Aang said to himself as they started heading to the explosion of fire.

For a minute he couldn't see anything for the fire caused smoke to surround him.

"Katara! Sokka!" He yelled into the smoke.

"Aang? Is that you?" Aang could hear Sokka's voice somewhere around him.

As the airbender started walking into the middle of it, someone grabbed his arm.

"Caught you!" He heard as the smokescreen faded.

"Zuko!" The surprised airbender looked up at the firebender.

"Let go of him!" Katara yelled. She had barely any water left in her water bottle but just enough to do the water whip.

The water whip flung towards the Prince causing him to break his hold on Aang.

"You'll regret attacking me!" He said and unleashed a fire blast straight for the waterbender.

Before it could reach her, Aang took his glider and spun it making a miniature twister that he flung towards him.

"Aaaarrrggghhhhh!" They heard from the trees above them.

"Appa!" Aang looked up to see his old friend coming over to pick them up.

By now Prince Zuko's guards were trying to surround them. The only hope of getting away was if Appa could come in and land directly in the middle of the battle.

But it was too late for Appa to try to save them. Zuko's guards already had Sokka and Katara.

As Aang tried not to get caught, he grabbed his glider from the ground and flew up to Appa before the guards had a chance to catch him.

It was nearly sundown and a cool breeze from the north started setting in which made it hard for Aang to fly up to Appa.

By the time he made it there, they were already heading back to the ship.

"Appa! We need to hurry if we're going to make it in time to save Sokka and Katara!" Aang yelled to the fluffy bison.

"Yip yip!"


	3. Chapter 3

**_Taken Captive_**

"Let go of me!" Katara screamed at the guard who held her in her position. But as she yelled he only held on tighter.

"Aang!" Sokka looked up in the sky at the bison with Aang riding on his back.

"Don't worry you guys!" Aang said and started to head straight for the guards that held Katara and Sokka. But as the airbender did, the other fire nation guards shot at him and Appa started falling from the sky.

"Aang!" Both Katara and Sokka gasped as they were pulled to look the other way.

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Once at the ship Katara and Sokka were forced into a small room. It was small and hot with little light to see with.

"Sokka? What's going to happen to Aang?" Katara couldn't help but say even though she already had her thoughts.

"I'm not sure. I just hope he's alright and comes to find us." Sokka said with a worried look almost like Katara's.

The place they were kept was small, most likely fit for one person only. There wasn't much in the room, other than metal floors and one bed that looked as though someone had torn it apart.

_Oh Aang, I hope you come…_

Katara thought looking around the room with a disgusted look.

"Hang on, if everything is metal, couldn't you freeze the handle on the door and break it open?" Sokka looked at his younger sister.

"No, I ran out of water when we were fighting Zuko. We're stuck here unless Aang comes and finds us." The waterbender sighed once again and sat down not knowing what to do.

Suddenly, the handle of the door turned and someone stepped inside.

"The Prince has commanded that you both be separated. You, come with me." The person at the door said and pointed at Sokka. No doubt it was a guard, by the clothing he wore which was just like the rest of them.

As the door shut, Katara and Sokka had become separated. Leaving the group spread apart.

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"Huh? Katara? Sokka?" Aang got up and looked around. Nobody was there. Then it all came back to him. The fight, Appa coming in, Aang going after Katara and Sokka, Appa falling, then nothing.

He sighed and looked up. It was night but how long had it been night he didn't know.

"Aaaarrrrrggghhhhhhh!" He heard behind the trees next to him.

"Appa!" He yelled and jumped to his side happy to see he was not alone. Also sprawled out on top of Appa's head, was Momo.

_Something's not right here…_

Aang went to the other side of Appa and tried to push him over to lay on his other side so Aang could see it. As he did and Appa sat up, Aang saw a deep cut on his right side.

"Appa…" He looked at his friend with a frown.

_How could I have let this happen? Now Katara and Sokka are gone and Appa's hurt. It never would have happened if I didn't come._

Feeling guilty with himself, Aang took a peek at the landscape around him. Everything was forest.

"Appa, you'll have to stay here while I search for Katara and Sokka." Aang jumped up in the air on a high rock and opened his glider still looking down at the bison. Then he flew off.

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_Aang! Aang! _

_Don't worry Katara, I'm right here._

_Where's Sokka?_

_I'm not sure, you look that way and I'll look this way._

_Aang? Aang where'd you go?_

_He's mine!_

_Let go of Aang!_

"Let go I said! No!" Katara jumped from the bed and looked around.

_It was just a bad dream._

Once actually glad to be in her cell, she let out a sigh of relief. But she knew that it couldn't last for long. Aang will be found and who knows what will happen to her and her older brother.

Just then the door opened again. It startled her as she fell out of the bed and hit the cold metal floor around her.

As the person at the door came into view she sat up but was surprised to see it was not a guard.

"What's going on in here? Weren't you told to keep it down!" an angry prince stepped out from behind the door.

"Uh, no… sorry." She tried not to look up from the ground she had hit seconds ago.

Without another word, he shut the door leaving Katara alone again.

Feeling relieved once again, she sat on her bed and thought. How much she wanted to be sleeping in her comfortable sleeping bag, with her friends at her side.

She wasn't sure how close the place where Sokka was being kept was, but she decided to call out to him anyway.

"Sokka?" No answer.

She tried to be as quiet as possible, so the angry prince wouldn't hear her once again.

"Sokka? Are you there?" Still nothing.

"This is hopeless," She told herself as she looked around once more. There was a window, but no way she could try to squeeze through it.

The room was very hot, but the window was too high for her to reach. She looked at her surroundings to find something to stand on to reach the latches that kept it shut.

_Bed!_

She went over to it pushing it closer to the window. The bed was easy to move, counting it was mostly a mattress from a bed.

_Carefully, carefully… got it!_

The latches opened and the cold winter breeze hit her face.

For quite awhile all the waterbender did was lean into the window from on the bed and cool off.

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On the other side of the ship two firebenders waited.

"Might I remind you Prince Zuko, that the avatar is still back on the island of Don-Sai?" His uncle said sipping a cup of jasmine tea while he talked to his nephew.

"If he doesn't follow we'll head back for the island by tomorrow. That is, if he doesn't come looking for them. It will be easier for him to come than the ship going back. Then we can make our way back to the Fire Nation with the avatar aboard. But for now, the ship will keep a short distance from the island."

"Very smart Prince Zuko, but shall we do with the children?" He asked once again sipping his tea.

"Leave them where they are. They're no other use to us." And with that he went out on the deck to be alone like usual.

Iroh didn't like the idea of that. They were kids, they needed to be treated better if they were going to be staying there for a while otherwise they could get sick or die of not having something to eat or drink.

_Ok maybe not die from not eating, but other things could happen._

Iroh thought to himself.

With a huge sigh, he snuck into the hallway below deck and down the stairs into the hall the prisoners were kept. Not knowing which contained them, he started searching through them.


	4. Chapter 4

**_Kindness_**

Not that far down the hall, Sokka paced the room trying to think of an escape plan. No luck.

_**Where is Aang? He should have found us by now! Zuko's ship couldn't have gone to far from the island. I hope…**_

Sokka stop walking then sat down on the cold floor. He knew the only hope of escape was either Aang or his boomerang, but his boomerang had gone missing after he used it to hit Zuko with it. Most likely the prince had it, but he couldn't be positive.

As Sokka was caught up in his thoughts staring at the walls that surrounded him making him feel small like a trapped animal, he didn't notice the door open.

"You must be hungry having not a thing to eat for so long." The warrior turned around to see an older man wearing a Fire Nation robe standing outside of the door.

He had seen this man before with their previous encounters with Prince Zuko, but never had he been face-to-face with him.

"Why don't you step out for a minute and come get a snack."

The thought of food made Sokka's stomach growl as it usually did.

"Uh, sure I guess." He said as they started walking out the door.

Suddenly Sokka stopped.

"Whoa, wait a minute! You want me, to come with you? I thought we were prisoners?" Sokka couldn't help blurting out.

"True, but not everyone's as stubborn as Zuko sometimes is, huh?" Iroh gave him a smile.

"But you're a firebender, how can I trust you?" Sokka looked at him suspiciously. He truly didn't know what to think. He didn't even really know the old man and now he was asking him to come with him.

"I guess you're right. Well, I better be leaving then." He said slowly make his way to the door.

"Wait, I guess a snack wouldn't hurt," He jumped from the bed and headed for the door after him. He could have sworn he saw the old man smile before they left.

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It was a long time since Katara had tried to call out Sokka's name and since everyone should be awake and not sleeping like earlier she decided to call for him again.

"Sokka? Are you out there?" She accidentally yelled. Just noticing that she had yelled out Sokka's name, she got to her feet and waited for Zuko to come and open the door furious with her like before.

**_Why did I have to yell? Sokka didn't answer anyway. Well, here it comes I guess…_**

Just then the door started to open.

**_Oh boy, I'm in for it now! He did hear me!_**

She tried to stay still as fright filled inside of her. She knew that it was easy to make Zuko mad and now she was about to be the one to cause it.

"Katara?" Sokka came out from behind the door.

"Sokka! How did you ever manage to get out here?" Katara tossed her hands around her older brother.

As she did Sokka pointed behind him to Iroh.

"I don't get it. Why are we getting let out?" Katara questioned.

"You look like you should get out for awhile, care to join me and your friend for a snack?" He pointed over at Sokka.

"Actually, He's my brother, Sokka." She had a surprised sound in her voice ever since she saw him.

"Oh, well you do look quite alike now that you mention it," He made a grin that seemed to comfort Katara somehow.

So the three of them headed towards the galley for something to eat.

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Far off on a small island nearby, Aang desperately searched it for any sign of his friends he had lost.

"The ship must have taken off already…" Aang sadly looked at his lemur, which only made the same look back at him.

"We don't know which way they went, and there is still to much mist around to see clearly. Which way do you think they went?"

He looked at Momo once more.

"Murrrrrooooooo?" Momo pointed to the north.

"I sure hope." The airbender said as he turned and headed for the northern sea. But as he didn't know, the ship was now heading west.


	5. Chapter 5

_**Not All Firebenders Are Bad**_

Once Katara and Sokka were in the galley, they sat down to talk to who they just figured out was Zuko's uncle.

"So what were your names again?" He asked them as they waited for their food to come.

"I'm Katara, and this is my older brother, Sokka." Katara wasn't sure if she should answer but she couldn't help it.

"Ah, I see. So you are the two who were at the North Pole." He looked at them both.

"Mmhhmm," Katara said softly trying not to remember what had happened that day at the North Pole before they left.

Just then two guards came in with three huge plates filled with all sorts of food that were unfamiliar with Katara and Sokka.

Sokka looked at the food as though he could already taste it in his mouth.

_**The things Sokka would probably do for food…**_

Katara tried not to giggle at the thought.

"This is supposed to be a snack?" Katara looked at the food wide-eyed.

"Eat what you can, it's actually more of a treat." Iroh looked out of a small window in the galley trying to see if Zuko was near.

"What do you mean?" Katara stared at him and started cutting a slice of bread to eat. After she glanced over to Sokka to see him already on the third to last thing on his plate.

"Well as you probably already know Prince Zuko wouldn't exactly be happy to see me taking you out to eat here." He said checking the window once more.

"Mmhhmm, I shee." Sokka said with a large piece of some sort of meat that was being served in his mouth.

" I don't get why you would let us out against what he says. Wouldn't he get furious if he found out?" Katara looked at him.

"I'm sure he would, which is why…" But before he had a chance to finish the door to the galley swung open and in front of it stood Prince Zuko.

"What are the prisoners doing in the galley!" His face turned red with anger. Never had his uncle seen him so mad which as Katara and Sokka saw frightened him.

_**Talk about furious…**_

Sokka thought and put down the food he was eating.

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"I think we went the wrong way Momo, I don't see anything this way." Aang thought as he turned to the opposite direction of where he was already going.

_**Katara, Sokka, I hope I find you soon before it's too late…**_

He hated being alone with nobody to talk to. He did have Momo, but he couldn't talk back to him anyway. He was by himself, without his friends to be there with him.

Just as he was thinking the airbender spotted land in the horizon. It was a much bigger island than the island they had been on before but didn't seem to be abandoned like the other one.

With the sun starting to set, he decided to head for the island and stay there for the night.

But little as he knew, the ship was heading back towards the island.

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"Why would you let them come out and into the galley! You know I told you that they would stay in their cells!" Zuko raged with anger at his uncle.

"They were hungry, and they had been in their cells all day," His uncle argued.

"We're heading back to the island to get rid of them and capture the avatar, they aren't allowed here anymore." The prince's rage calmed, as he knew they would get rid of them.

"It wasn't their fault, I told them they could come out and eat in the galley with me." Iroh now putting the blame back to him.

This put Zuko back into an angry displeasure.

"Once again uncle, they are prisoners! They have no right to be even near the galley!

"They were just bored, I won't let it happen again." Iroh lied.

"It won't have a chance to happen again, because we're going back to capture the avatar. I'm not letting him slip away anymore." With that, the prince left the deck.

_-------------------------------------------------_

"I hate being back in here," Katara said quietly to herself as she moved her bed back in place to sleep for the night. But when she began to pull the covers down off of the bed to sleep, the door handle turned.

How she had wanted to see Iroh's face at the door smiling at her and letting her come out for a cup of tea. Thinking about this, she walked from over near the bed to the door.

As the door opened, she was upset to see it wasn't the fun old man that they had talked and laughed with earlier that day, it was Prince Zuko.

Startled, Katara backed away from the door.

_**This can't be good, if only I had water left in my bottle. I could freeze him and run out the door. Then we could make an escape…**_

Katara looked up into the angry prince's eyes waiting to be yelled at again like earlier that day.

Trying to act fearless, she tried to stand up straight. She knew this wasn't making her look much brave since she really did feel a little nervous without her bending or any weapons but she wasn't sure if he could tell.

"What do you want?" She said in a brave tone.

"To let you and your idiot brother know that your friend, the avatar has until daybreak to come to the ship. And if he fails to come, we'll be returning to the island to search him out and take him to the Fire Nation where he belongs. But you and your brother will be left on the island to stay."

Katara shuddered at the thought of being stranded on the island.


End file.
